The Georgetown Metropolitan

You may have noticed the construction of the above unusual looking structure along the canal recently (GM jokingly called them flying buttresses). What is it about and what’s going on with the canal generally? GM is here to help!

Like real flying buttresses, this structure (which is in the canal just west of Wisconsin Ave.) was put up in order to stabilize the adjoining wall. Last year, Georgetown Heritage, the non-profit that is leading the effort to restore the canal through Georgetown, became alarmed at the state of the old stone wall on the south side of the canal and the way it was bulging out. With the help of structural engineers, it determined that the wall was at risk of a catastrophic failure. It alerted NPS to the crisis and even commissioned blueprints for this support structure.

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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown a good place to be old!
• They finally released a trailer for that movie about the Drath murder. (The way they’ve held back this movie makes GM think it’s pretty bad!)

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM is visiting upper Wisconsin Ave. The photo comes from the DDOT archives.

GM believes the photo is from the 1960s, based upon the cars and the fact that there are no streetcar tracks down the center of the road (the streetcars stopped in 1962).

To get your bearings, the large building up the hill in the center of the shot is now the British School. That is just about the only building on the east side of the street that is still standing today.

The most notable building in the photo is the Safeway at the center:

This was the first Safeway building at this location. It was built in 1955:

Despite being built during the height of suburbanization, the store was built right up to the street. To be sure, it was still surrounded by a large parking lot, but there was somewhat of a consistent streetscape. Interestingly, before its construction, this stretch of Wisconsin Ave. was just parking lots:

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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• More on the street decking.
• Come be GM’s neighbor! Invite him into your incredible wine cave!

As GM mentioned in February, parking enforcement has been essentially suspended since the early days of the pandemic. That will start to end starting June 1st.

This development was reported recently during one of the Covid status news conferences. Specifically the following enforcement will resume:

• All parking rules
• Vehicles will be required to have valid registration and license plates
• Towing will be enforced
• Street sweeping rules will be enforced

Some have groaned about the return of this enforcement, but any Georgetown ought not to. When you allow non-residents to park for free and without time limit, they will take up a lot more parking spaces. So if you find yourself circling the block a lot more recently, lack of enforcement probably is contributing to that.

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If you want a selfie with the Transformers statues, you better…well…not hurry, but don’t dawdle too long: the homeowner has changed his application for approval to limit their presence to six months.

This is revealed in the May ANC agenda:

23. SMD 2E05 – OG 21-157 (HPA 21-296)
    3614 Prospect Street, NW (Square 1202, Lot 59)
    Residence
    Install two sculptures in public space for a period of six months
    Permit

The writing was on the wall at this month’s Old Georgetown Board meeting. It was clear that Newton Howard was not going to get approval to keep the statues there indefinitely. However, some of the board members hinted that they’d be open to approving it temporarily. Howard appears to have taken them up on that suggestion and resubmitted the application with a time limit.

It’s unclear when the time would start ticking. Is it from January when they first went up, or upon approval of the board, which will take about a month to make its way through the full Commission of Fine Arts? That would mean the difference between them coming down in July and them coming down in November(ish).

In either event, it would appear the forces of No have stamped out another little glimmer of fun, all in the claimed interests of preserving history.

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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Great history of the blazingly yellow house on Volta Place.
• A defense of the Transformers. (GM has some news about them coming up later…)